Central to the production facilities operated by Trent Concrete in Nottingham is a large gantry crane for handling stone and steel sections. The crane is controlled by an 11kW motor, which, until recently, used resistors for speed selection. This method was becoming increasingly imprecise with age, leading Andy Owen, chief electrical engineer, to seek a solution.
The Jaguar drives have been applied to a slip ring motor on the crane long travel drive, and a dimensional saw, providing increased productivity and superior positioning control, and improved safety as a result of faster braking on the woodworking saw, said IMO Jaguar.
“I thought that the age of the slip ring motor would mean that we had to replace it completely, which was not something we were not keen to do,” said Owen.
“Because this was our first experience with inverter drives we were a bit reluctant at first, but we have not regretted the decision; the Jaguar VXM has been installed now for over 12 months and we have not had a single problem.”
Owen added that the firm is benefiting from “much smoother and precise control on the crane, allowing us to better position large sections of stone and steel with excellent precision, even when we are undertaking tandem lifts.”
